Sonic OVA Z
by Lady Creepypasta
Summary: *Inspired by Super Mario Bros. Z* 200 years ago the world was devastated by a rogue Badnik. The descendants of the few survivors have adapted to the post-apocalyptic world, but when Silver and Mephiles discover two survivors from the events of the disaster, they also awaken the one who caused the devastation to begin with... Now they must stop him once and for all.
1. Chapter 1: The Heroes from Another Time

_**Sonic OVA Z**_

 **~Chapter 1: The Heroes from Another Time~**

 _Nobody knows the full story of what happened 200 years ago. All that was known was that the world was devastated by one of Eggman's rogue robots. Now the world was simply in ruins. There were only about nine survivors in the entire world, but there were no known records; the only proof of survivors were the descendants. The planet's inhabitants had adapted to the ruined environment, and to this day they live in the ruins quite happily. Except for one young hedgehog who longs to see the world in its former beauty..._

Silver the hedgehog was running across the collapsed buildings as fast as he could. Mephiles, a much darker and seemingly deformed hedgehog, was running after him.

"Where are we going this time, Silver?" Mephiles asked, sounding very unenthusiastic.

"You'll see," Silver smiled as he continued to run, ocassionaly floating over gaps with his psychokinesis. Mephiles, unlike the other hedgehogs, did not have that ability, so instead he relied on Silver to use his psychokinesis to carry him over the gaps.

After a while of running, the pair arrived at a large wasteland.

"...This is just another wasteland," Mephiles pointed out, now sounding incredibly unhappy.

Silver smiled. "No. You'll never believe what I found here," he assured. "Come on!" Silver ran across the dry land, followed by his companion, before stopping at a certain spot and crouching down, observing the ground intensely. Mephiles copied him, but was unsure of what he was looking at.

"I don't understand," Mephiles thought out loud.

"Look," Silver replied. He pointed to a small green plant which was just growing out of one of cracks in the ground. Mephiles just stared at it, looking a little bit surprised, but then he went back to pulling his usual expression of gloom.

"It's a plant," he pointed out.

"I know!" Silver exclaimed excitably, jumping up to his feet. "Don't you know what this means?! Our planet will one day be like it was centuries ago!"

"It will take centuries for the planet to restore itself," Mephiles doubted, also standing up on his feet. "Besides, that small plant will not survive. There is no water. There are no nutrients. It will die, just like everything else."

Silver stared at the dark hedgehog, his face immediately turning into a solemn visage. He slowly closed his eyes and looked away.

"I just... I just wish the world was as it was before," he admitted quietly.

"That's what we all want," Mephiles added. "But this is the world we live in now. We cannot change that. We just have to live with that."

"But I don't want to live like this anymore!" Silver shouted, losing his temper. "We live in a world of ruins! Everything around us is debris from the events which occurred all those years ago! There are probably dead bodies everywhere we stand!"

"And so what?" Mephiles responded vacantly. "There is nothing we can do about that, Silver. You should just be thankful that we are not suffering like our ancestors suffered. The world is peaceful. It is quiet. Now stop dreaming of the previous world; the planet will never be like that again." The drab hedgehog then turned around. "Come; we are leaving," he commanded, walking back to where their homes were.

Silver stared at him for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh, dragging his feet as he followed his partner. He managed to catch up with him since Mephiles was still unable to cross over the larger gaps. Mephiles turned to look at Silver, silently asking for him to lend a hand. Indeed, Silver did use his psychokinesis to lift his friend, but was lost in his little daydream. He really wanted to live in a peaceful world...

"Silver," Mephiles calmly said suddenly. Despite the calmness, it was still enough to startle Silver, causing him him to completely lose focus. Mephiles was no longer being held up by Silver's psychokinesis, but instead he was falling down the large ravine.

"Mephiles!" Silver yelled, instantly using his psychokinesis to catch him seconds before he hit the ground. "Mephiles, are you alright?!"

"I'm fine..." Mephiles groaned, sounding highly displeased and irritated.

"Hang on, I'll lift you outta there," Silver assured, about to raise Mephiles out of the drop.

"Wait," Mephiles called up to him. Silver, confused, did as he was told, listening to what Mephiles had to say. "There's something down here. Put me down and then come down here."

"Got it..." Silver responded, gently placing Mephiles down before floating down himself. As he was about to ask Mephiles what he had found, he simply looked in the same direction which Mephiles was staring in, seeing exactly what he meant.

In front of the two was a hallway which seemed to have belonged to an old laboratory before the events of 200 years ago. It was metallic with rust and dirt staining the walls and floor, and there also seemed to be some blood stains. The corridor was pitch black since there was no electricity to power the lights or any other piece of eletrical equipment.

"Whoa..." Silver gasped, slowly walking towards the destroyed hallway. "It's been years since something like this was last found!"

"It doesn't seem to be very safe," Mephiles noted.

"So? There could be something in there!" Silver responded.

"Like what?" Mephiles questioned the silver hedgehog.

For a moment Silver was silent, unsure of what would be in the lab. He hesitated to get his words out. "I-I don't know! Artifacts, relics... anything could be in there! Think about it: we could be famous and we could make a lot of money if we find something rare!"

"What good does a lot of money do these days?" Mephiles asked him. "We don't need a lot of money. And I do not want to be famous."

"Come on, you told me to come down here!" Silver reminded. "We're going in there!" With that, Silver grabbed Mephiles by the arm and dragged him inside. The further the two walked, the darker the corridor became.

Silver examined the corridor, taking in every little bit of detail, amazed. "I've never been inside an ancient structure before..." he gasped quietly to himself. He then looked at Mephiles. "And surely you find this interesting too? I mean, you do like dark and isolated places..."

"I do," Mephiles agreed. "But I like being in dark places which are not ancient buildings."

"You always have an answer to disagree with what I say," Silver smiled to himself as he walked. Mephiles, no longer wanting to argue, decided to keep quiet. Thankfully Silver was just entertaining himself by observing the surroundings.

After a short while of walking, the two noticed that they had entered a large, round room. Like the corridors, the room was completely black, though the rust and dirt was still visible. There were a lot of broken control panels, and in the centre of the room were five hibernation chambers.

Two were active.

"Huh...?" Silver spoke, slowly approaching the two pods. "But... how are they even...?"

"There's probably some kind of back-up power," Mephiles assumed. "If that is the case, then there is no doubt that those two hibernation chambers are currently in use."

"Wait, so are you saying that there are people in those things?" Silver queried, sounding surprised.

"Yes," Mephiles answered simply. "Be my guest if you wish to open them." As he said that, he seemed to step back, presumably for safety purposes.

Silver stared at Mephiles, feeling as if he had been abandoned. He looked at the two active chambers, unsure if he should open them. It didn't take Silver long to choose due to his curiosity, so he used his psychokinesis to disrupt the technology and open the pods, stepping back a little cautiously.

In the first pod was a robotic hedgehog with black and yellow stripes, a red power gem being his power source. His left arm was replaced by an arm cannon. In the second pod was a similar robotic hedgehog, except he was mostly blue and his power gem was yellow. His arm cannon was also replacing his left arm. Both robots had red LED eyes which switched on slowly as the two stepped out. Mephiles and Silver could only stare, unsure of what to do.

Both robots stepped out of their containment, scanning the area slowly. Silver and Mephiles remained frozen in their spots, but the two machines didn't seem to be bothered by them. Once they had finished scanning, the black and yellow hedgebot smiled and stretched himself.

"Whew! Finally, some elbow room!" he exclaimed happily.

The blue robot just stared at him grumpily, his arms folded. "We were in hibernation, room didn't matter," he pointed out.

"Yeah, well I'm just saying that it feels nice to be awake and free again," the other robot countered. He then drew his attention to Silver and Mephiles, seeing their horrified expressions. "Oh... These guys must be the ones who let us out."

As if he had ignored the happier robot, the other machine instantly pinned Silver on his front. "Who are you?! Answer now or die!" he threatened, his arm cannon already charged up as he pointed it to the back of Silver's head.

"W-Wha...?! H-Hey...!" Silver reacted, panicking as he thrashed around to escape the robot's grasp.

"H-Hey, hey, take it easy, Metallix!" the yellow-striped robot commanded hesitantly, gesturing for him to get off Silver. The blue robot, Metallix, ignored him.

"Answer me now," he hissed.

"M-My name is Silver...! Silver the hedgehog...!" Silver answered, flinching.

"Your name isn't in my database..." Metallix told him quietly. He seemed suspicious, though he stood up and let Silver go. "So. How many years have passed?"

"What do you mean? How many years since when?" Silver asked, completely confused.

"Since we went into hibernation," Metallix answered darkly.

"Take it easy, Metallix," the other robot said to him, trying to calm him down.

"What's going on?" Silver interrogated, extremely confused.

Both of the robots looked at him. Neither of them spoke, until Mephiles decided to fill the silence.

"Silver, I believe that they must be referring to how long it has been since the events that occurred 200 years ago," he concluded.

"200 years?!" both robots exclaimed at the same time, shocked.

"Yes," Mephiles answered calmly.

"Wow... It's been a while..." the black robot muttered to himself. He then looked at the two. "The name's Shard, and this guy here is Metallix."

"Um... nice to meet you?" Silver responded to their introduction, sounding quite unsure and nervous.

"Now then, do you mind updating us on what's been going on since the disaster?" Shard requested. "I'm surprised that anyone survived."

"Well, things are actually pretty peaceful," Silver admitted, scratching his head nervously. "The people of this generation have adapted to the ruined environment, and nothing has really troubled us for a long time."

"Huh..." was all Shard could respond with as he appeared to be in deep thought.

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Silver decided to speak. "So... How did you two get into those hibernation chambers?"

The two mechanical hedgehogs looked at him with a serious look. Metallix looked quite murderous, though Shard just appeared to be a little solemn. Shard then decided to answer the hedgehog's question. "...It's a long story."

"Right," Silver replied, feeling a little guilty for asking the question. Since these two were around at the time of the disaster, they probably saw some horrific things.

"Silver, we should be heading back to our homes now," Mephiles reminded impatiently. This instantly caught Silver's attention.

"O-Oh, yeah," Silver recalled. "But... what do we do about these guys?"

Mephiles just glanced at the two metallic hedgehogs before coming up with his answer. "...They can come with us. But we should explain to everyone that these two are from the past." He then looked directly at the two machines. "And you two should really explain what happened back then. Nobody knows the full story."

"...We'll explain what we can, but only if it's completely necessary," Shard responded honestly.

"Right then. Let's go back," Silver commanded, using his psychokinesis to levitate both himself and Mephiles. The other two used their jet boosters to fly out of the ravine at a much quicker speed, waiting for the two hedgehogs before heading back to the city.

...

There was another room in the ancient lab, much further down compared to the room where Shard and Metallix were found. It was a similar room with more hibernation chambers, but only one appeared to be in use. However, the power in that pod seemed to have gone off when Shard and Metallix were awakened. The pod slowly opened up as smoke flooded out from it, a metallic hand grabbing onto the side as red eyes glowed within the smoke.

 **~End of Chapter~**


	2. Chapter 2: The Villain Arises

**~Chapter 2: The Villain Arises~**

Silver and Mephiles led Shard and Metallix to their home - a destroyed city with new houses built from the debris.

"Whoa... the whole city... it's..." Shard began, speechless as he stared at the ruined city.

"Gone," Metallix ended for him, staring at the same sight.

Silver turned to them. "What? The city's been like that for centuries," he said simply.

Shard shook his head. "Not when we were around," he corrected. "This was our home city. But then..." The machine paused and shook off the flashbacks, trying to smile. "Never mind. The past can't be changed. What happened back then doesn't matter anymore."

"It would still be nice to know the full story," Silver pinioned. "And only you two could tell it."

"We'll tell you later," Shard assured. "Can you just show us around first? Introduce us to a few people and stuff?"

"Um... sure," Silver replied unsurely. He led the way into the city, with the two robots following close behind while Mephiles seemed to walk separately from the group.

Silver first headed into his home. "This is where I live," he introduced. "It's an average house; most of us living in this city have homes like this one."

The two robots examined the interior closely. "Not much of a house..." Shard muttered to himself. Silver heard this and was initially quite irritated, but he had to remind himself that these two came from a time where houses were much different.

"So... Do you live here alone?" Shard questioned after a pause.

"Well... yeah," Silver admitted quite sadly. "I've lived alone for a long time. You see, my parents died when I was a kid..."

"Spare us the sob-stories," Metallix interrupted heartlessly.

Silver glared at him with a rush of anger for a moment before he took in a deep breath to calm himself down. Shard attempted to change the subject.

"So, how does living in this era feel?" he asked. "Peaceful? Simple? Complex? Terrifying? Enlighten us!"

Silver turned his attention to him. "Um, well... I suppose you could say it's pretty peaceful," he described. "We all just get on with what we have to do..."

"Yet you don't like it," Mephiles quietly reminded, resulting in him getting a dark look from Silver. Silver decided to just ignore the comment, moving on from the subject.

"Anyway, what was life like back in your original time?" he asked.

Shard decided to deliver the answer just after both of the robots hesitated to speak. "Well, you see, this "city" you live in is on top of a REAL city," he explained. "Cities were a lot larger with taller buildings, not to mention that those buildings were a lot more practical than the ones you guys have. Also, no offense, but... our structures were much more efficient."

"Interesting," Silver gasped quietly, genuinely interested in the description. Mephiles rolled his eyes, practically sensing Silver's interest. There seemed to be a silence as Shard and Metallix recalled the past before Shard decided to speak again.

"Sorry about that. So who lives in this... city?" he queried.

"Not many people," Silver answered. "Though we have a mix of humans, animals and even some robots."

"By some you mean barely any, right?" Shard assumed.

"Sorta," Silver admitted. "The ones who live here are good guys, but the rest... they belong to this criminal known as Eggman Nega. In fact, Shard, you kinda look like one of those robots..."

"Oh, thanks," Shard responded sarcastically, frowning. "Anything else you'd like to warn me about? You know, anymore duplicates?"

Silver thought for a moment before answering. "Nope."

"Good," Shard exhaled.

Just then, three extremely small robots ran into Silver's house, all looking quite happy.

"What the...?!" Shard reacted, surprised.

"Oh no..." Silver muttered.

Metallix pointed his arm laser, ready to attack, but was stopped by Silver.

"Hey, don't worry these guys aren't bad!" he assured.

"Wahh! They're on me!" Shard squealed as the three little robots clung to him. "What even are these things?"

"They are called Bits," Silver answered. "They're cute little guys, aren't they? Even though they do become rather annoying at times."

Shard began to chuckle. "They are kinda cute; look at them!" He cuddled them as if they were teddy bears, laughing. Metallix looked disgusted at the sight while Silver just laughed quietly as the Bits just snuggled into Shard.

"I'm guessing they like the company of another robot," Silver guessed. That's when the Bits all got up, observing Metallix. Metallix stared down at them with a warning glare. Shard chuckled.

"Oh, come on, Metallix, they're not gonna hurt you," he told him.

"I don't care," Metallix growled. All three Bits seemed scared of Metallix, so just went back to cuddling with Shard.

"...I'm guessing that you guys don't want to look around some more just yet," Silver guessed, smiling.

"Hang on a sec, I'm being loved," Shard responded, holding the three smaller hedgehog robots. Again, Silver could only chuckle.

That's when an explosion occurred.

Immediately, the group ran outside to look at what was going on. "What was that?!" Silver asked, worried.

"It could be Eggman Nega again," Mephiles assumed calmly.

"Whatever it is, we have to take it down!" Silver yelled confidently.

A robot then made its way into view, emerging from the smoke of the explosion. It was a blue robotic hedgehog with long, sharp quills, lined with white stripes. A black cape flowed out from the machine's spiked belt as he stared at the group with dangerous red eyes.

"Yep. Definitely another one of Nega's," Silver confirmed. Suddenly, without warning, Metallix darted forwards, flying directly towards the robot.

"Metallix, wait a second!" Silver called out, but it was no use.

Shard was staring in shock. "It can't be..." he uttered to himself quietly as the Bits all hid behind him. Silver glanced at him, having heard his words. However, he had no time to question Shard, so decided to run forwards to aid Metallix.

The enemy robot charged up some lightning in his hand, firing it at Metallix. Metallix narrowly dodged, gritting his teeth. "That trick won't work on me this time," he hissed as he fired a charged laser shot at him. Simialrly, the other robot dodged, darkly chuckling.

"No, but it will work on the rest of these pathetic organics," he responded.

"Hey, you!" Silver yelled, flying upwards and trying to use his psychokinesis to short-circuit the opponent.

"Silver, no!" Shard cried from where he was, also flying up. The only one who didn't join the fight was Mephiles.

As Silver attempted his attack, he became the victim of the hedgebot's lightning strike, sending him crashing back down to the ground. Metallix growled and fired more lasers at the robot as Shard joined his side.

"I didn't think we'd be seeing you again..." Shard admitted, sounding both angry yet still surprised.

The mechanical hedgehog laughed evilly. "I thought that you had been destroyed with the rest of your friends," he replied honestly. "Oh well, at least now I can destroy you both personally."

"I'd like to see you try!" Shard snapped, flying towards him, ready to punch. The other robot grabbed him and forced some of his lightning into his circuits, causing Shard to scream.

Enraged, Metallix tackled the enemy robot, wrestling him as Shard fell down much like how Silver did.

The blue Bit ran to Shard's side, looking really worried. He shook him a little to try getting him up.

Metallix had been thrown into one of the collapsed skyscrapers, giving the opposing robot the chance to turn his attention back to Shard. He noticed the Bit by his side, wishing he could smirk as he charged up another lightning attack. As the blue Bit looked up, he barely had any time to move as he was hit directly by the lightning bolt, instantly shutting down since he wasn't built to fight.

Silver, having been helped up by Mephiles, stared in horror. "He's... He's willing to kill innocent beings..." he gasped. "We have to stop him!"

The robot landed by Shard and lifted him up. "Now tell me: Where are the Chaos Emeralds?" he asked.

"I... I don't know..." Shard growled. This caused his opponent to punch his chest, directly where the gem shard was.

"If you don't answer truthfully I'll shatter your power gem," he threatened.

"That was... my honest answer...!" Shard answered angrily. The robot didn't seemed to believe him, but that's when Silver started to short-circuit him once again. The robot malfunctioned, but then he started to glow.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled out. In a flash of bright white light, he was gone.

"Damn..." Silver panted as Shard got himself up. Metallix also flew back over to the group.

"Where did he go?" Metallix asked darkly.

"He just... teleported!" Silver described.

"He managed to use Chaos Control due to the energy he had absorbed in the past," Shard translated.

"Damn him..." Metallix rasped.

Shard then lifted up the incredibly damaged blue Bit as the red and yellow Bit seemed to mourn for him. "We've gotta fix this little guy."

"We have a repair chamber, don't worry," Silver assured. "But I think our real concern is who that guy was."

"Oh... him..." Shard reacted, sounding uncomfortable. He then let out a large sigh. "I guess now's a good time to tell you about what happened in the past..."

"Shard, we don't need to tell these fools anything," Metallix hissed, narrowing his LED eyes.

"No, Metallix! They need to know about what kind of enemy they're dealing with!" Shard shot back at him. Metallix huffed and fell silent as Shard managed to calm himself down. "Look... Let's just get back inside and get this little guy fixed up. Then I'll explain everything you guys need to know."

And with that, the group headed back into Silver's house as Shard placed the blue Bit into an automatic repair chamber. It'd be a while until the Bit was fully fixed, so he decided to explain the story as the Bit was being repaired.

 **~End of Chapter~**


	3. Chapter 3: 200 Years Ago

**~Chapter 3: 200 Years Ago~**

 _Long ago, a mad scientist known as Doctor Robotnik created me as the robotic duplicate of the world's hero, Sonic the hedgehog. I was known as Hyper Metal Sonic._

 _I had come close to destroying the Land of the Sky and defeating Sonic, but Sonic's friend, Tails, caused me to malfunction and have a personality change. After that, I rescued the President and an old owl before letting myself get destroyed in the rising lava._

 _Three years later, Sonic had me rebuilt after his buddy Knuckles discovered my power gem in my melted remains. I became the robot you see me as now: Shard the Metal Sonic._

 _Unbeknownst to us all, Robotnik had created yet another Metal Sonic, hoping that he would be the perfected version of what I previously was. Unfortunately for the doc, this Metal Sonic also went rogue after a while. He rescued me when the President had me deactivated after Robotnik reprogrammed me to be evil again. After seeing that this Metal Sonic also had freewill, Tails upgraded him into Metallix the Metal Sonic._

 _It seemed that Robotnik had given up for a while with creating Metal Sonics. Things seemed to be going extremely well for us all. We all moved into some better homes, Metallix and I were considered just as heroic as Sonic... We even started to socialise! Sonic met this gal named Sally, I met this AI lynx named Nicole, Metallix met a cat known as Honey... Things were perfect._

 _Or so we thought..._

 _The doctor had returned to building Metal Sonics. He had built his third model, which didn't seem much different to Metallix and I. Heck, he even had some form of freewill, too._

 _But he was by no means a good guy._

 _As usual, Sonic and the rest of us worked together to scrap that machine, but he came back for more. When I challenged him one-on-one, we were practically evenly matched. I had attempted to convince him to join our side, but his personality was much colder than mine and Metallix's. The only thing keeping him under control was Robotnik's kill-switch which would partially reboot him if he were to disobey. At first I guess I felt sorry for the guy having potential life robbed from him, but in the end... he became my worst enemy._

 _None of us had seen Metal since Metallix and I last fought him, but we didn't think much of it. We just thought that he had been destroyed for good. But he was far from being done with us._

 _On a day when we were least expecting it, our city - the city which lays in ruins beneath yours - was attacked. Metal had returned, but he was stronger. He had become the all-powerful Neo Metal Sonic._

 _We all did our best to fight, but there was nothing we could do. He had managed to copy a lot of our data secretly and knew most of our weaknesses, not to mention the fact that he could predict and counter our every move._

 _Then he took his power too far..._

 _Metal was searching for the seven Chaos Emeralds, but he made sure to cause as much bloodshed as possible while on his quest._

 _His first victim was Tails._

 _Knuckles attempted to battle Metal to avenge Tails' death, but even he didn't stand a chance._

 _Sonic teamed up with a hedgehog known as Shadow to try taking on the upgraded Metal Sonic, and they almost had him. But even they weren't strong enough in the end._

 _I had made it to the fight too late, seeing a lot of my friends dead on the ground. Enraged, I attacked Metal, not caring how much power I was draining from my own system. Of course, like the others, I barely stood a chance, but Metallix came to my aid. He and I paired up against Metal, and since we are both powered by power gems, our power combined seemed to give us the upper hand, but not for long._

 _Metal somehow managed to charge up enough energy to summon the Chaos Emeralds to him, and he unleashed a huge Chaos Blast which shook the entire planet. Metallix and I managed to take shelter in a collapsed building, but most of the world didn't even expect the attack..._

 _Though Metallix and I were both worn out from the fight, Metal seemed to be just fine. He found where we were and prepared to finish us both off there and then, but Nicole had managed to materialize in front of him. She used her powers to cause him to malfunction and temporarily shut down._

 _I could see that Nicole was fading, realising that her central power system had been damaged beyond repair during Metal's Chaos Blast. She used the last of her energy to lock Metal within a hibernation chamber. In order to keep Metal's chamber locked, Metallix and I decided to also go into two hibernation chambers, serving as a power source which kept Metal's chamber online. The last thing I saw before entering the chamber was Nicole as she finally vanished, never to appear again._

 _You know what happened after that..._

 **~End of Chapter~**


	4. Chapter 4: The Adventure Begins

**~Chapter 4: The Adventure Begins~**

Silver looked speechless. "Wow... I never knew the story was so... So tragic..." he said quietly.

"Did you think it would be about ponies and rainbows?" Metallix growled at him.

"N-N-No, I just mean that...!" Silver stuttered. "I've just... never heard the story from the perspective of someone who actually witnessed what happened... All we could do was make assumptions as to what happened..."

"Well, now you know," Shard told him, sounding rather quiet as he seemingly stared into space. He then snapped out of his flashback and smiled. "Well, I guess now's our chance to defeat Metal before history repeats itself."

"What? With these two lunatics?" Metallix scoffed. "I'd be better off finishing him by myself."

"Hey! We are not lunatics!" Silver snapped, offended.

"To be fair, Metallix, Silver here does have that weird psychic ability which he used earlier," Shard stated.

"And what does this fool have to offer?" Metallix asked, gesturing to Mephiles. Mephiles was silent, as were Shard and Silver. But then Shard 'blinked' with surprise.

"H-Hey, you kinda look like...!" he exclaimed, pointing at the dark hedgehog. Mephiles just stared at him.

Metallix also looked at Mephiles with an odd expression, tilting his head. "Huh... He does kinda look like him, doesn't he...?" he agreed quietly.

"Who?" Silver asked, glancing back and forth at the pair and Mephiles.

"That Shadow guy I mentioned..." Shard answered, still sounding as if he was in a trance. "The Ultimate Life Form..."

Mephiles proceeded to stare at Shard before finally turning away. "Well? Are we going to stop this robot or not?" he asked.

Shard grinned at his words after snapping out of his trance. "We'll stop that creep before he even knows what's coming," he assured as the blue Bit finally popped out of the repair chamber. The Bit was greeted by the other two Bits with gleeful smiles and a group hug. Shard observed the Bits, fascinated as he crouched down to their level. "Aw, look at the little guys..." he said quietly in awe. This caused Metallix to roll his pixelated eyes.

Silver stepped forward with a determined look on his face. "We need to go after this Metal guy!" he exclaimed heroically. "He may have ruined one timeline, but he certainly won't ruin this one!"

Shard looked over at Silver and nodded once, rising up to his regular height with a smile on his face. "Now you're speaking my language!" he responded as Metallix walked closer to them.

"Hate to kill the moment here but are you forgetting just how powerful Metal Sonic is?" he asked, mainly targeting the question at Shard. "We're going to have to find the seven Chaos Emeralds before we attack him, otherwise we stand no chance."

The black and yellow hedgebot tapped his metallic chin. "Hm... I suppose you're right..." he replied before perking up once again. "Alright, then! We'll all go after the Emeralds before going after Metal Sonic! Once we get them all, we'll have the advantage in a fight!"

"Easier said than done," Metallix told him. "Metal is most likely going after the Emeralds, too. We need to be quick and get them before he does, but we also need to be prepared for a fight when we do locate one."

"No problem!" Silver responded to Metallix's words.

"Yeah, what he said!" Shard added with a smile. "If we can all team up then we'll be able to hold him off!"

"Yes, but we will need to retreat once the Emerald is in our possession," Metallix clarified.

"No biggie," Shard said to him as the Bits all jumped into his arms.

"Now that all of the details have been discussed, I think it's best if we go on our search now," Metallix finalised. "And Shard, leave those pathetic little hedgebots here. They aren't built for fighting."

"Alright..." Shard sighed, putting the Bits onto the floor. All three of them looked sad.

Metallix turned to Silver and Mephiles. "Come on. We can't waste time," he said, leaving the building. Silver looked at Mephiles and nodded to him before running out. Mephiles walked after him.

The three waited outside for Shard, who eventually came out with an embarrassed smile on his face. "Sorry, I was saying goodbye to the little ones," he explained.

"Typical," Metallix spat.

"Hey, it was an emotional moment!" Shard admited, folding his arms.

"You barely even know them," Metallix reminded.

"I'm like their father, Metallix!" Shard continued, sounding melodramatic. Metallix just sighed heavily.

"Let's just go," he said, flying off. Silver floated up into the air and flew after him, also using his power to help Mephiles fly beside him. Shard flew after the group, flying beside Metallix.

While flying, Shard glanced back at the two hedgehogs. He then flew closer beside Metallix so that he could engage in a one-to-one conversation. "Hey, Mex? Why do you think that Mephiles looks identical to Shadow?" he asked quietly.

"He's most likely a descendant of his," Metallix answered.

"But he looks _exactly_ like him," Shard replied. "Aside from his drab colours and lack of a mouth, of course..."

"We don't need to focus on him right now," Metallix interrupted. "He's on our side and he's going to help us find those Emeralds. That's all that matters."

"Right..." Shard responded quietly. He then distanced himself slightly from the blue hedgebot as he flew in silence, following his scanner to find the next Chaos Emerald.

 **~End of Chapter~**


End file.
